Assault on the Rear Flank
by WittyWallflower
Summary: This is primarily a retelling of various Jo/Taggert scenes with a little added shippy goodness. xposted from AO3
1. Chapter 1

They'd fallen into a habit of playing paintball together a few times a month, much to the enjoyment of both. Worthy opponents were hard to find in Eureka since asthmatic unathletic nerd stereotypes were in fact sometimes accurate. And few could approach the level of combat training Jo and Taggart possessed. When they played Last Man Standing Jo as the decorated marksman was likely to win. But Taggart usually got his own back in Capture the Flag. The few times they had played as a team they had demolished the field so soundly, it seemed like poor sportsmanship to ruin the fun of others and they began to reserve private times on the paintball courses.

They had just finished another round when they got the alert from Carter and headed his way. Though not before a cheap shot from Tag. Before she opened the door to swing out of Taggart's ute when they arrived at the bunker, a chart laying on the dash in front of her caught her eye.

"Hey, what's this?" Jo recognized the map of the forest around them, but the cluster of symbols in yellow, concentrated in the area where they had spent the morning...

"Nothing" Taggart insisted, reaching to snatch the flimsy out of her hands but she easily blocked his grabs with her forearm. "Gotta go. Carter needs us."

"You designed a paintball battle plan" She had to smile. It was one of the cutest things she'd ever seen. Pretty well done too, it hadn't taken more than a second or two to figure out what she was looking at and how to decode his notations. His strategy was sound, if a little unconventional and a lot dirty.

"Give me that!" Tagg made another grab and almost had it, but Jo swept the battle plan out of reach and pinned his reaching arm down for a moment, giving him a frown "You know, you are in clear violation of the paintball rules of engagement!" he asserted, trying not to sound defensive.

"Me?" her eyebrows went up at that "You've got a regiment of splatter-bots ready to assault my rear flank."

"You'll know when I assault your rear flank." he returned, trying to keep up the bravado.

A moment later he felt Jo's eyes on him and it occurred to him how that sounded. He froze for a moment, then goggled silently, really not sure what to say to make the moment better or even marginally less awkward.

Lucky for him, they really didn't have time for Taggart to dig himself any deeper. Approaching the bunker and being rebuffed by SARAH worked as an effective distraction. Even more effective was the Sheriff, when they finally got him on the comm line, had answered strangely with a "false alarm" and "Josefina". Taggart could tell that threw Jo off her stride a bit and he wasn't too big a man to appreciate the playing field being even again.

"That's your name? Josefina?" Taggart asked as they climbed back out of the bunker. He smiled back at her but her face was stone. His smile dropped and he made a slight gesture of surrender. "And a very pretty name it is, too"

"Don't call me Josefina. Nobody calls me Josefina." she paused. Carter knew that. "I can't believe he called me Josefina"

"Oh, I heard" Tagg made for the ute only to have Jo halt him, her paintball gun held across his body.

"Something's wrong." She came to a dead stop, then turned back to the bunker.

Raising her gun she fired back at the bunker but the projectile splattered in a quickly-disappearing haze of pink paint against an unseen barrier. Taggart narrowed his eyes. That hadn't been there before. Obviously, as they had passed through it twice. Force field tech wasn't installed casually and left on a preset program. Someone had to activate the field behind them. He raised his own weapon and they both fired off several shots, testing the force field before them. Their eyes met when they finally lowered the guns.

Confusion was replaced by suspicion in their gazes. Carter sending them a 911, only to send them away. Refusing to see them and claiming to be alone when the bunker was surrounded by vehicles. Carter's demeanor overall had been weird even before he used the forbidden name. Now the bunker was suddenly even more impenetrable than before. Nothing was adding up here.

In Eureka math was life, and when things didn't add up things went very wrong. She couldn't shake the sense of eyes on them. Something beyond the passive scanners of SARAH. Was it human? Was it hostile?

They regrouped in his ute. Jo had tried calling Carter again with no response. Every person that Eureka usually turned to in an emergency seemed to be down in the bunker already, if their cars parked outside were any indication. And none of them were answering their PDAs. With that intellectual dream team inside, what problem could there possibly be that they couldn't overcome? Jo suddenly felt like she had too many questions and no one to give her answers.

Jo didn't know what the hell was going on, but she was damn sure going to find out.

"We need a way in." she said.


	2. Chapter 2

Taggart quickly located the entry hatch he sought in the forest. Grasping the grate, he tried to remove it from the access shaft leading down into the service corridors beneath the town.

"Taggart," Jo said behind him, scanning the trees, gauging their position and wondering why the hell they were there. "We're like a mile away from where we need to be."

The problem was in the bunker. They should be at the bunker, or at the sheriff's station loading up on real weapons, or even at GD rounding up a science posse to help. Not out in the middle of nowhere.

Taggart grunted, adjusted his grip, and gave another heave at the cover grate. He couldn't at the moment recall what sort of rare, semi-indestructible, and annoyingly heavy metal alloy the access shafts were constructed of.

"It's the nearest access point." he replied, his voice strained with effort. He was going to be both furious and embarrassed if he couldn't get this open. It would mean he had wasted time bringing them out here. "Trust me."

Jo rolled her eye as she stepped up beside Taggart. Men had such a habit of missing the obvious and making things more difficult for themselves. She took a firm hold of the grate and gave it a shove, rotating it slightly.

"Jo, please," Taggart stood, trying to dissuade her efforts. "you're not gonna be able to…"

Ignoring him, Lupo completed rotating the cover grate an eighth of a turn, then braced herself and began to lift. It was heavy, yes, but far from impossible for the former Special Forces soldier with the female chin-up record. Once it was turned so the grooves lined up. Taggart quickly stooped to assist her and soon the heavy metal grate was laying in the weeds at their feet.

Taggart turned to survey the entrance and the short drop down to the floor within, grateful the pink paint splattered on his face would hide any blush. Lefty loosey. Crikey that's a dumb one to forget, especially in front of a lady. A lady who didn't suffer fools. Taggart tried to shake it off and find his stride as he faced the hole. No ladder was built in to assist the descent but it couldn't have been more than 10 feet.

"Need a hand?" Jo's voice was neutral as he approached the access point, but when he glanced at her he could sense her amusement.

"I'm good. Step back." He flapped his hands at her to shoo her away. If he was lucky, maybe he could still save face.

She stepped back the few paces at his request and turned to grab their paintball guns. Jo supposed his male ego might need a break after a couple hard knocks today. Besides Taggart wasn't incompetent or sexist. Just a little… over-enthusiastic at times. Now Carter, him she would mock mercilessly for any loss of face due to his own need to be macho.

Taggart wondered which gods he'd angered as he lay 10 feet down, having fallen rather gracelessly from above and landed on his back, winded. He only hoped they granted small mercy and Jo hadn't been watching too closely.

"Careful! First step's a bitch." He called back topside. There, just the right amount of nonchalant I-meant-to-do-that attitude, he thought.

A dark shadow flew down from above and a paintball gun landed on his stomach, knocking the wind and a loud grunt from him. He barely had time to roll away before the second gun followed the first. He managed to snatch both out of the way before Jo followed them, dropping neatly to land on her feet before letting the momentum of her fall carry into a somersault. She popped smoothly out of the roll into a combat-ready crouch, scanning her surroundings before catching his eye and giving him a nod. She was so bloody impressive, he could watch her move all day.

They scouted the tunnel in their immediate vicinity, shining flashlights as they pivoted around corners, weapons at ready. Around one corner they came to a sudden stop.

"Whoa." Jo reacted.

It was like a whole 'nother world down here. Everywhere she looked she saw passageways leading to rooms and other corridors and staircases leading to even more of the same. With so much empty space running around beneath the town, what the hell was even holding everything up? Lupo had a sudden irreverent thought to be grateful this part of Oregon was seismically stable.

"A labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels." Taggart mused at the sight before them. "housing Eureka's sewage system, gas, electrical, plumbing, fiber optics…" Just like all veins and nerves in a human. The residents of the town were like so many tiny mites living on the skin of the living body of Eureka.

"That's a lot of pipe." Jo uttered besides him, interrupting his thoughts.

"She's a beaut. More deceptive than the kelp forests of Tasmania. More malodorous than the sulfur springs of Waiotapu." Taggart's eyes gazed into the distance but he wasn't seeing utility service corridors, he was seeing the beautiful and dangerous country he still thought of as home.

Jo let Taggart have his moment of drama. It was kinda entertaining. Then she asked,

"You spend a lot of time down here?" He seemed to know the place well.

"More than I bargained for." He replied as he crouched to the floor and set about extracting gear from his bag. She followed him down. "I chased down cunning predators that escaped from Global Dynamics."

" _Musculus barilius_." he elaborated when that caught her attention.

"English?" She queried. Crouched close together, when her head had turned to him Jo realized how close they were. Her eyes strayed to his lips as he spoke before she forced her gaze away. She fiddled with the earpiece he handed her more than strictly necessary as she tried to ignore the fact that she hadn't had a clue what he was talking about.

Jo Lupo was no slouch. But she didn't recognize any familiar Latin roots in that one. Taggart probably knew the taxonomic nomenclature for every species on two continents.

"Smart mice." was the answer he gave her.

Jo didn't know how to respond to that. She offered a vague nod before slipping on her comm unit, securing it in place with her headband. Handy. She might have to keep a headband or two stashed in her desk at the station for the next time things got exciting around here.

"IQs through the roof. Little varmints used vector formulas to keep me off their tracks." Taggart slipped his own comms into his ear. He wasn't ashamed to admit the difficulties he'd had shepherding mice back to GD. Animals were brilliant, even before scientists started tinkering with what was already doing just fine.

Jo was amused by the story and thankful she hadn't been involved in the cleanup. Though, hunting with Taggart would be a lot more fun than sitting behind her desk waiting for calls.

"How'd you catch them?" she asked.

"Smart cheese" he smirked and slid his eyes to her to check her reaction to his joke. To his delight she couldn't suppress a smile.

Jo threw up her hands as if to say 'well, ask a stupid question'.

"Though the female of the species proved to be much more clever than the male." Taggart admitted conversationally.

"Just like humans" Jo's smile was wide as she secured her gear and stood.

Taggart's eyes followed her as she rose. Josefina Lupo was too clever by half indeed. He found himself thankful they had a mission to focus on. He wasn't sure he stood a chance of besting Jo in any serious competition. But there were a few he'd love to give her a run for her money. This was going to be fun.

"Rightio." He stood. "Follow my lead."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." she stopped him before he could move a step. "I believe I'm the ranking officer here. You follow my lead."

"Fair dinkum." he acceded gracefully. A temporary retreat only. He wasn't vain about the low rank he'd achieved before he'd left the army behind for science. But she needed him and that knowledge made him just a teeny bit smug as he asked. "Which way?"

Oh, she was good. Lupo showed no sign of hesitation or uncertainty as she scanned their surroundings, checking out each corridor that led away from where they stood. She couldn't know the way and most of the tunnels looked the same. He made a bet with himself that she'd ask for his help now.

"I know which way I would go. Which way would you go?" She said. Her cheeky smile slipped for so quick a moment that Tagg wondered if it was a trick of light in the dim tunnel that she looked oddly vulnerable for a tic there. He couldn't just rib her for not having the knowledge he did and she'd neatly sidestepped the need to admit any lack. And he couldn't refuse to answer without looking like _he_ didn't know, or like he was refusing to obey the ranking officer.

Damn. Clever girl. Mentally he cheerfully awarded this round to her, then spun around and led the way down the tunnel in the direction of the bunker, gun up though he didn't expect any threats.

"Exactly the way I would have gone." she announced triumphantly behind him, following him with her weapon at ready.

The tunnel system did not conveniently have a corridor that led straight to the bunker. this forced them to meander and backtrack occasionally. When Taggart had been down here chasing the smart mice, he'd been focused on his quarry not on his surroundings! He led on, not wanting to admit defeat, sure he'd find some sign of what they were looking for. Eventually.

"You don't have a clue, do you?" she said. Eventually. Surprisingly Jo sounded amused rather than annoyed.

And she was. Jo felt like she was back on even footing. She may not know her way around the tunnels but neither did the man who had bragged about hunting tiny rodent predators in them. She suppressed a snort at his pretensions.

"Labyrinth" he stated, defensive. "Do _you_ have a clue, _Josefina_?"

Her smile dropped and she halted to face him. It was like a cold draft blowing over him, a goose stepping on his grave. Perhaps that had been a step too far. She glared at him in silence. He fidgeted for half a second before he caved.

"Oh, it sounds prettier every time I hear it." he tried for a joking tone but sounded more sheepish and apologetic than anything.

She raised a hand and Taggart's eyes locked on the finger she held up. Crikey, Lupo probably knew 6 different ways to kill him with that finger alone.

"You get one free pass." Jo all but growled. "That was it."

Taggart almost sighed in relief but was distracted before he could respond. Something in the air had changed. He held up a finger of his own to halt her. They'd have to circle back to the fact that he had actually called her Josefina twice now and she hadn't eviscerated him yet.

"I'm picking up a scent." he said.

"Sewage?" she snarked, shaking her head. She was still irritated with him but there was a bigger picture to worry about.

"Yeah, but mixed with the aroma of highly seasoned meat." his response was interspersed with strong sniffs.

Jo raised an eyebrow when Taggart closed his eyes and inhaled mightily.

"Pepperoni!" Tagg burst out. "No, sausage."

He sounded so sure that Jo sniffed the air delicately, expecting confirmation. Nope, still smelled like a dank dark sewer to her.

"Exhaust from the bunker." Taggart insisted, pointing before him as he walked, nose in the air and nostrils flaring as he followed the trail. "This way."

Jo sniffed again, almost inclined to be dubious because she still couldnt detect a difference. The smell had flattened out; it wasn't as offensive and overpowering to her nose at it had been at first but it was unpleasant enough to mask anything else. But Taggart WAS an expert tracker. Besides, if he was wrong she could always make fun of him for it later.

When they turned a corner and made it 10 feet down the next corridor only to be forced to dive for cover when a blast exploded near them, Jo had to admit Taggart had been right. They were getting close to _something_ because no area before now had been hazardous. Despite getting turned around underground, she had faith in Taggart's sense of direction. Why was there active fire coming from the bunker's location?

She ducked around the wall for a look to assess the situation.

"Who the hell…." she asked, trailing off.

"Or what the hell?" Taggart finished.

He had spotted the weapon mounted on the ceiling, panning back and forth as it waited for a target.

"All the time I've spent down here, never seen sensor-cams before." Taggart said. Jo looked up at him as he spoke. "Must be linked to the bunker's defense system.

He scanned the corridor and spotted the cameras giving the weapon eyes to aim with. "Oh crikey!" he uttered. "Look at them all!"

They lined the corridor on both sides, none more than a meter and a half apart. If one failed, plenty of others were ready to fix on any moving target. They were a challenge, sure, but they needed to reach the bunker and Jo wasn't going to let a couple gadgets stand in her way.

"Well," she said. "Lucky we're both hunters"

Taggart would have laughed if the situation had been a smidgen less potentially deadly. Or if either had an actual gun on them. Wasn't she fierce? Wasn't she mighty? He pitied the man, woman, or machine that thought they could defeat Jo Lupo.

"For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble." He joked. An obvious falsehood that had her smiling before she signaled their plan of attack.

He counted them down and the two swung around the corner as one, bringing their guns up in sync to hit each camera with simultaneous satisfying splatters of paint. They advanced steadily and seamlessly down the corner, step matching step and quick trigger fingers covering lenses too fast for the computer to compensate. By the time it switched its targeting program to a different feed, the new camera had been smeared in pink or yellow so thick no images could be seen.

Thankfully only the perimeter was armed with defensive weaponry. After making their way past it, leaving a particularly neon colored hallway in their wake, they reach the access hatch to the bunkers subsystem. At least they think so.

"If I'm right, this leads directly to the Smart House." Taggart said. He was pretty sure; mostly sure. He didn't entertain any serious doubts. Still a bit of build-up wouldn't hurt him any when he turned out to be right.

"And if you're wrong?" Jo rose to the bait to ask.

He wasn't, she knew. Tagg knew what he was doing and she had seen the recognition spark in his eyes several turns back. For all they had gotten (she wouldn't say lost) sidetracked earlier, Taggart definitely knew where he was now. And for that matter so did she. Hard to put her finger on how with no GPS and no sunlight but from the hatch they had dropped down and the distance they had traveled, there were only so many places they could be. None of the other places would have sensor-cams around them.

Then again, SARAH wasn't supposed to have sensor-cams either.

"I'll release an unending torrent of raw sewage upon us." Taggart tried to give her a menacing look.

Jo managed to suppress a snort but she gave a genuine smile at his mischievous humor. As if Eureka's high tech and sometimes overwrought systems would be so poorly designed to allow the simple spin of a wheel turn into a poo-nami. As if Taggart would risk spinning that wheel to open the door if he really thought that was a risk. Jo realized suddenly how much she smiled and even laughed with Taggart. He was ridiculous, overdramatic to the point of theatrical sometimes. But in a way that was somehow endearing and not annoying. In a way that allowed her to have light moments in times of action, a pause to laugh, to let the stress of combat ebb for the few seconds needed to clear her head, make her more alert, strengthen her resolve and courage. They had both seen serious action and they both knew what a soldier needed in a partner.


	3. Chapter 3

Taggart set his paintball gun down and rubbed his hands together. Right-o then. He gripped the wheel and strained mightily for a moment. The hatch reminded sealed up tight.

"Superior species, huh?" Jo couldn't help but say.

"There!" Tag's voice was tight with effort as he tried even harder. "I got it, I got it, I got it!" he insisted, as if saying it would make it happen.

"You don't. Move." Jo set down her weapon and stepped in to show Tag how it is done… again.

She spread her feet to ground her stance, gripped the wheel to push with one arm and pull with the other. After bracing herself, she hauled as hard as she could. But despite her best efforts she couldn't get it turn more than the scantest millimeter. Jo threw herself at it again, bracing against the floor and throwing her body weight into it. Her boots threatened to slip out from under her, sending her crashing face first to the floor, so she stepped back to reassess.

"Paint might lube it up." she suggested, snatching her gun up from the floor.

"Pfft!" Tag snorted and couldn't suppress a chuckle. That was a stretch but Lupo always felt like she should have a solution. And that solution usually involved a weapon. But they couldn't muscle their way through this one.

"You've got a better idea?" Jo wasn't sure why her pride was stung. After all, Tag hadn't been able to open it either. At least she was brainstorming.

"I do actually. Yeah." Tag looked her up and down, assessing.

The problem here wasn't the amount of force. Jo was the most forceful person he knew. The problem was proper application of said force. Now, with a lever… Tag grabbed his fun from the floor. He wedged the barrel into the hatch wheel and grabbed the handle. This was also much easier to grip than the smooth metal circle of the hatch.

"It's going to take the strength of three men. I figure you're good for two." Taggart smiled at Jo.

She returned the smile and bent to set her weapon down.

"Grab my butt, Jo." he beckoned.

Jo straightened and fixed him with A Look.

"Sorry." It has sounded funny in his head, he thought as Jo positioned herself and found a grip. He counted to three and they heaved simultaneously on the makeshift lever. "Come on Jo, give it some welly!"

With a jerk, the hatch wheel gave, turning suddenly. They both gave a grunt of surprised as the butt of the gun swiveled up sharply, sending them stumbling back a step. Jo fell back against Taggart and found herself pressed against the side of the tall man. Hurriedly she stepped away, gaining distance both from the man and the now-released hatch. Taggart smiled at her, but that was probably just a response to their success, she thought.

"Get ready for stinky." Taggart warned before opening the hatch door.

Jo wanted to roll her eyes but she braced herself instead. Just in case. Taggart cringed slightly for dramatic effect as he cracked the door open. Nothing. Naturally. He knew what he was about, after all.

"After you." He swung the door open far enough for Jo to step through.

"No, no. Go ahead." she responded.

"No, you first." He was a gentleman after all and the threat of a tide of sewage, if there ever actually was on to begin with, was past.

"No, really, I insist," Jo nodded. "Go."

All-righty then. Taggart brought his weapon to ready and scoped out the passageway before him. Off we go. "Beauty before brawn." he joked over his shoulder as he entered the hatch. Jo followed right on his heels.

They made their way to a ladder of metal rungs mounted into a tube leading upward. Jo realized then she hadn't seen any other ways back to the surface. Tag had been right about their entrance point being the nearest access.

"I reckon we're right under the bunker." He looked up the ladder.

Jo slipped by him and fired a paintball up the shaft.

"I didn't even see a camera." Taggart assured her. He'd crouched to enter the shaft and how found himself down at Jo's height leaning close over her shoulder. He had an irreverent moment of noticing how the yellow paint spattered across her face seemed to highlight the structure of her face. A beauty even in warpaint and camo.

"Yeah, well,' she turned to look at him and the breath froze in his lungs at how near she was. "if you wait 'til you can see them, that means they've seen you."

Jo turned back to scanning the shaft above. Tag smiled.

"Beauty before beast." he offered.

She grinned back and accepted the lead this time. Truly, it was impressive watching her scale the ladder one-handed, her weapon still ready for action. Especially impressive given the view he got by bringing up the rear.

"And a beauty she is." he murmured to himself as he gazed up after her, admiring a different sort of rear for a moment before he followed.

They were directly underneath the bunker, crouching in the service tunnel, when they ran into a need for intel. Jo didn't want to proceed without knowing more about the bunker defense systems. And it would take too long to find access to the bunker. She tried her PDA but comms had been down since they had entered the perimeter. No doubt a jamming signal causing interference. With no other ideas she decided to try the most obvious idea first.

She knocked. On the ceiling above her, or the floor of the bunker, depending how you looked at it. She waited, half expecting to be attacked by the defensive systems again. After several long moments of listening they heard a tapping from above echoing down the pipes around them. The pattern repeated. An SOS

"It's Morse code." Taggart recognized.

Jo reached up and tapped out the tune to "shave and a haircut", relieved when the "two bits" echoed down to her. That was definitely Carter they were talking to. That would make it a little easier, she figured. Carter was a lot easier to figured out than the other brainiacs she suspected were inside with him.

She didn't waste time trying to Morse a coherent question. Carter would know exactly what information she needed to formulate a strategy. Jo may resent him for usurping the Sheriff's badge from her, but she had to admit the man could really pull together a plan.

That plan wasn't long in coming. Jo and Taggart interpreted the internet taps they could faintly here. Lupo had aced Morse in Basic, naturally, but may she heard wrong this time because she was seriously confused. She looked at Taggart but the fact that his face was only inches from hers didn't help confusion any. She glanced away.

"'Crack pipe'. What's..." Taggart's voice was colored with befuddlement for a moment before everything clicked. "Oh! 'Crack PIPE'!" he said, gesturing to the conduits running above them. He jumped up and shined his flashlight along the pipes and tubes that lined the low-hung ceiling above them.

"Okay" Jo said as she twisted to look about her. "Uh, which pipe?"

"Well, pick one." was all the suggestion Taggart had to offer.

Without hesitation, Jo raised her weapon and drove the butt of the gun hard into a pipe. She hit it again and again until it gave. a froth of vapor released, signalling the vacuum seal on the bunker was broken. Tag lowered himself to the floor and waited, listening for further signals hard over the faint hissing of ventilation. Jo sat beside him.

Within a few moments the expected signals came. Carter signaled the all clear. They had done it. The danger was past.

"A-ha! We did it!"

"Good on ya, mate!"

They both crowed with triumph, celebrating with a comradely sock on the shoulder.

The touch made them freeze. They stared at each other for a moment. Taggart didn't realize he was unconsciously leaning towards her, drawn in by the genuine smile of delight on her lips. Jo noticed though, noticed too how close they were once again. She felt the return of a desire she'd felt once before, when they had danced together. The hell with it, she decided. She wanted to know, so she was going to find out what it felt like to kiss Jim Taggart.

She swallowed, licking her lips and grabbing his collar to pull him in. She planted a solid one on his lips. It wasn't a long kiss but it was enough to leave an impact. When she released him, Jo had to take a deep breath.

Taggart was wide-eyed. He'd been too stunned to process what was happening. Too blown away to believe it was even happening. Helpless to react, to participate, to reciprocate.

Well that wouldn't do at all.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and drew her back to him. Clumsily, almost hungrily. They toppled over as he kissed her fiercely, so she wouldn't mistake his initial lack of reaction as indifference. It wasn't graceful or particularly erotic but oh this was much better. Now his legs were tangled with hers and they were as close as their tactical vests would allow. They kissed sloppily, chasing each others lips when one had to pull back to take a breath. His fingers found her ponytail and wound themselves through the strands

Tag's lips had just found her neck when she heard it, a different sound this time. There was a hum and a clank as some mechanism of the bunker engaged. What sounded like hydraulics and the scrape of metal against metal. Jo froze. No way would Carter mess around with anything knowing she and Tag were down here. That meant the bunker's system still wasn't under control. And it had more defense capabilities than they had encountered so far. The danger wasn't over after all.

"Tag." she whispered.

He stilled in her arms, aghast for a moment with the worry he might have gone to far, been much too forward. But as he drew back, he caught what she had heard. Jo's eyes met his and he nodded in understanding.

"We need to go."

And that could have been the end of it. Maybe should have. They had hightailed it out of the bunker's range before Jo whipped out her PDA to make contact with the surface. She called in the cavalry to Carter's place and arranged their own extraction from the tunnels. By the time they had made it to the bunker topside, the crisis was truly past. S.A.R.A.H. had released her 'reluctant guests' and Stark was detailing to Fargo exactly how to disabled the bunker defense system that if done incorrectly could lead to Fargo losing his job. They had parted ways when Jo had to return to the station to file the paperwork on the vaporization of one pizza delivery dude only to run into each other again when she stopped in to Cafe Diem for a late dinner.

The rest of the day had been rough. Not that the whole bunker fiasco has been easy exactly, but with Taggart it had been almost… fun. An adventure. Now she was coming down from the adrenaline and conflicted about those kisses. What they meant, how she felt about them, what she wanted to do about them. She had managed to put that all aside to deal with the hardest part of her job: informing the friends and family of a deceased citizen.

Jo was wiped out as she settled in at the counter. It was not a night to grab a booth and enjoy her meal in Vincent's ambiance. The chef caught her eye from where he stood chatting with a table of patrons. He raised a finger to ask for a moment before he hustled off into the kitchen without speaking to her. She tossed a wave his way as he went. She trusted Vincent to know her tastes and moods. He took pride in being able to guess cravings or produce the perfect comfort food for any situation.

She was grabbing the bag of takeout when Taggart appeared beside her with a welcoming smile.

"G'day Jo. Everything sorted with the smart house?" he asked.

She responded with a nod, too weary to get into the details. Her silence made him frown.

"Everything all right?"

Jo nodded again but made an effort to look more normal, attempting a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a long day, you know? Looking forward to putting my feet up, having a beer."

Taggart nodded. He badly wanted to address the kisses they had shared. He'd been thinking about them all day, unsure of what his response should be. He swung back and forth between feeling like a lecherous old man who had best keep his grubby mitts to himself, and wondering what saintly act in his youth or childhood had made him worthy of such a miracle as her attraction. He wanted to know but now wasn't the time when she was so knackered. And he strongly suspected he wouldn't have the courage to bring it up if left too long.

"Right-o. May I see you home?" Sure, he wasn't going to bring the subject up. But it couldn't hurt to put himself in a position for a goodnight kiss at her doorstep, if she chose to do something like that.

"Don't think a woman should walk the mean streets of Eureka alone at night?" Jo's tiny smile was more genuine this time.

"Well," Taggart began dramatically as he took her bag from her and offered instead his elbow to gallantly lead her out onto Main Street. "It is a dangerous place. Why, even the houses are deadly around here."

They riffed and bantered lightly the short distance to Jo's home. Her food went cold as they lingered on the porch to finish their conversation. After several more subjects were introduced and exhausted, talking turned into a comfortable silence. They had gazed at each other a few moments before Taggart, though reluctant to leave, made his farewells. It had felt like a natural urge to bend to give her a kiss on the cheek as he said goodnight. Given the uncertainty between them at the moment, he knew it was a brave and risky move.

"Tag." her voice stopped him just as he turned away.

Her eyes were fixed on his lips and his heart thumped with hope that she might kiss him again. But she only swallowed and dropped her eyes.

"Good night." she said simply and opened the door to disappear inside.


	4. Chapter 4

Jo tried not to let her thoughts distract her too much. This thing with Tag wasn't supposed to be a Thing. She had a job to do and couldn't spend her time with her head in the clouds.

Luckily, Carters are good for keeping a person grounded. Especially Zoe with her brutal teenage honesty and lack of sensitivity filter. Jo just needed to choose a course one way or another, pick a path and follow through with it. Zoe would make the options clear.

Jo had told her what had happened while SARAH was keeping hostages, what she and Taggart had done together to help Zoe's father and the other prominent citizens in town. And about the kissing. Zoe managed to fight off her natural urge to scream "eew, eew, why?!" but only because she could see Jo was really conflicted.

Jo Lupo hadn't had a boyfriend since the Carters came to town. And probably for a while before that. And Zoe thought that was crazy. Easily one of the three hottest people in town and super cool and funny to boot, yet perpetually single. Sure, the tough girl image probably scared some people off but anyone running away wasn't good enough for Jo anyway, so Zoe wasn't concerned about that. Besides, Jo wouldn't be Jo without her… GI Jo-ness.

"So, why don't you just go talk to him?" Zoe asked. What she really wanted to ask is WHY Jo would want to talk to, or kiss, him in the first place. In a town full of crazy genius types, Taggart was considered most eccentric even by the whackos.

"I can't." Jo answered, wringing her hands together in a nervous gesture very out of place on the normally unflappable deputy. "You know, everything is all weird with us now. You know, maybe it was just a one-time thing. You know, adrenaline, heat of the moment."

Zoe rolled her eyes. That was kind of weak. Why wasn't Jo trying harder to brush this off? Wait, did she not WANT to brush it off?

"Making out with Taggart?" Zoe asked, stressing the name. Of all the people in town for Jo to make a move on, Zoe wouldn't place many people below Taggart on the list. Vincent, maybe. Probably Beverly. but Vincent was gay anyway and Jo hated therapy. "More like a moment of insanity."

"Not so loud." Jo hissed as they passed Vincent's table. The man had the ears of a bat and absolutely no filter for gossip. Everything he heard got repeated to someone. "Look, I really need some outside perspective here." Jo's face was pleading and her hands were twisted together again. "Please?"

Zoe sighed. She was still super creeped out by it but it was important to choose her words carefully. Jo didn't often approach Zoe to talk to her like a peer. Really, almost no grownups had before she came to Eureka and Zoe found that she kinda liked be talked to like an adult. And adult conversation meant trying to set aside her own bias and try not to hurt any feelings by being judgey.

"You want perspective?" she said, finally settling on a neutral point and turning to Lupo.

"Uh-huh."

Jo seemed almost eager to hear what Zoe had to say, crossing her arms and bracing herself to hear the worst. Carters could be cruel and cutting when they wanted to be. They had an innate ability to read people and that made it easy for them to find sore spots to prod. The fact that they so rarely wanted to do that to others was what made them such good people.

"You hooked up with a guy whose age difference with you is the same as me and my dad." was Zoe's stark simple statement.

Jo reared back. That… was not what she had expected to hear. She hadn't really put much thought into the age difference herself. Intellectually, from handling his record, she knew how old Taggart was. It just… never seemed relevant to her interactions with him. Until now.

She opened her mouth to respond but came up with nothing. For a teenager to be pointing out an age difference as a dealbreaker… maybe she should stop and think about this a moment. Raising an eyebrow at her own internal confusion, she turned to look at the man in question.

Taggart was half a block away, seated on the pedestal of the Archimedes statue, surrounded by children as he regaled them with stories that, knowing Taggart, were likely nightmare fuel. Jo had only meant to take an assessing look but Jim had caught her gaze and lifted a hand to wave at her before turning back to the kids.

Lupo smiled back before she could help it, returning a little wave. Zoe smirked a little. Tag was really weird, but then so was Jo kinda. And she didn't often smile that easily. It made Zoe feel a little better about being a teenager everyone assumes is boy-crazy. Infatuation is not limited to the young, from what she could see. Between Jo's weirdness with Taggart and her dad's crush on Allison Blake, Zoe was feeling more romantically mature than the adults around her. Despite her own lack of experience in the matter.

The brief little thrill of Taggart's attention had given her warmed Jo for a moment. It was silly and ridiculous and it felt a little like her first crush on Tommy Holewa from next door when she was 13. But Tagg was fun and never treated her like she was weak or dumb and he was really smart and a good shot. Also he was charismatic on his own unique way. The kids sitting on the grass listening to him seemed riveted by his tales. He was good with them; he'd probably make a great dad.

Whoa. That thought pulled Jo back quick. Thinking about any man in connection to parenthood was way too serious to approach, even when that man wasn't an eccentric Australian. Thinking about fathers highlighted Zoe's words again and suddenly the kids started to seem more likely to be Tagg's _grand_ children. That thought made the decision easy. She turned back to Zoe.

"That did it. Thanks." Jo gave Zoe a pat on the shoulder and headed off down the street. She felt better being able to compartmentalize that question and put it away. Life was much simpler when she could easily categorize her relationships, no.. wrong word. Her interactions with other people.

"You're welcome." Zoe shook her head as she moved off in the other direction. Lupo may have overtly agreed with her, but Zoe suspected this wasn't the end of the Jo/Tagg weirdness.


End file.
